Well it happened last night. Joe and I made a quick trip out to Pechanga to blow our lottery winnings and so we missed it.
Wait 'til next year. If there is a next year.
Pam Keller was denied her turn in the Mayoral tether ball court, forgetting that to be Mayor you need three votes. Her posse must be sorely disappointed with the shut out. The Yellowing Fullerton Observer will no doubt be putting out a special edition decrying the end of civilization, and the barbarians at the gate, and whatever other nonsense they can cook up; maybe they can get some delish quotes from the gal with no “political whatevers.”
Anyway, Friends, get ready for a tsunami of self-righteous boohoo outrage.
Those little marshmallows really make the cocoa better...
Don Bankhead, who has been on the City Council since right before The Flood, will be mayor again next year. He voted for himself, as did Dick Jones and Shawn Nelson. We have been told that Ol’ Doc Jones coughed up a supremely sublime HeeHaw Moment that we will be sharing later. Apparently Nelson kept his mouth shut, which shows unusual perspicacity for a politician; we have to wonder if he isn’t still plenty pissed off at Keller for her attacks on him after he stood up for the citizens of Fullerton on the pension spike finagle last year.
As a consolation prize Keller got to stay mayor pro tem, a pretty useless ballot designation, but at least the word mayor is in it.
We hear that Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle is raising money for Harry Sidhu’s putative bid for the 4th Supervisorial seat next year. Pringle deals with Sidhu on the Anaheim City Council, and Harry’s an okay guy, and at least he, like Pringle, is a Republican. But goddam it Pringle, Sidhu does not live in our district. He lives in the “Elegant Yorba Estate” that, unfortunately for him, is located in the 3rd District!
A is for Anything I can get my greasy mitts on...
Let’s not forget that Pringle also endorsed the candidate with the phony residency in the 72nd AD election – Linda Ackerman, whose entire campaign was one fraudulence heaped on top of another. So what gives? Does basic honesty count for anything among our electeds?
Guys like Pringle and John Lewis are obviously into politics for what they can get out of it personally. Like Lewis, Pringle is a lobbyist, making his living off of all the contacts made during his days in the Legislature, and by making calls to people that he has helped. And that makes him just as big a government parasite as any government union worker.
Today Matt Cunningham deigned to visit our humble blog with about eleven hundred comments. Hell, I’m honored, I guess. What dedication! Now that he seems to be following us I thought I’d raise a topic that is becoming more timely than ever – the 4th Supervisor election that now could be decided in June 2010.
Let’s see. The Red County blog is supposed to be a conservative Republican blog. So why hasn’t uber-Republican Matthew Cunningham come out with any endorsement in the OC 4th District Supervisorial race. We know that he just couldn’t find it in himself to go out on a limb and support Chris Norby over the unqualified, dishonest, carpetbagger from Irvine, Linda Ackerman – it was just such a close call; but c’mon now this one’s a freakin’ slam dunk fer crissakes.
Let’s help out Matt by reviewing the would be Supes:
1. Tom Daly – career government worker; Democrat.
2. Rosie Espinosa – Democrat and no doubt as “progressive” as they come.
3. Lorri Galloway – Democrat and no doubt as “progressive’ as the come. Oh, yeah!Carpetbagger!
4. Harry Sidhu – Republican but Carpetbagger; plus Cunningham has been taking shots at him as an unprincipled hack for several years.
5. Shawn Nelson – Conservative Republican who stood up to the unions and his RINO pals on the Fullerton City Council and who took a strong position against Fullerton’s phony Redevelopment expansion.
Well this is really a no-brainer for somebody who is supposed to be a conservative Republican. Whatdya say, Matt? Who are you supporting in this election?
Today Red County blogger Matt Cunningham ran true to form, wasting thousands of keystrokes on another weirdly irrelevant post about the OC Fair, once again failing to even mentioning the fact that Fair Board members met in secret to organize a “Foundation” to buy the Fair; that a few days later they voted to hire a “consultant” to lobby the Governor’s office to include beneficial language to a potential RFP ( paid for by the public); that the so-called consultant (not publicly chosen by the Board), Dick Ackerman, was legally barred from lobbying at the time; that the County Counsel, Nick Chrisos has written a letter to the State Attorney General’s office (a facsimile of which was posted on this site) questioning the above mentioned activities; and that the AG has dumped the business into the lap of OC DA Tony Rackauckas. All pretty interesting stuff, you would think, especially for a blog that’s supposed to be about OC politics.
In his latest post Cunningham claims to be neutral on the sale issue, but nobody is buying that load of horseshit. It’s clear he is up to his old misdirection routine – high-stepping for the OC Repuglicans at their very worst.
Searching Cunningham’s own blog archive reveals that he was himself a proud recipient of Fair Board largess, and that he brushed off the misfeasance of Board members who directed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free food, drink, and tickets to their pals – pals like Mike Carona, and even to small fry like Cunningham himself.
Is this the only reason Mr. Integrity has failed to even make mention of the funny stuff? Probably not given the fact that some GOP high rollers and Central Committee members are part of the backroom cabal that was obviously playing fast and loose with their authority. His man-crush Dick Ackerman is the “consultant” who seems to have been already hard at work getting the enabling language into the AB22, and who was then then hired to lobby Arnold to get preferential conditions into the RFP.
This fine paragon of virtue has based his little career on looking the other way while his buddies were misbehavin,’ but he can’t seem to understand why he is such an object of derision by so many people, and why some folks are just sick and tired of the Repuglican misrule in this County.
I would do a count-up to see how long it is until the Red County actually does an honest post on the Fair saga, but why bother? I already know it’ll never happen.
The Closed Session has something very interesting. Item 2 is noted as “Portion of Tentative Tract Nos. 15671, 15672, and 15673 – West Coyote Hills, Fullerton, CA”. Yep, more Coyote Hills for those that just can’t get enough.
Among other items on the consent calendar, Item 5 is going to change the appointment process for at-large commissioners.
Item 6 is so that the Parks and Recreation folks can apply for a grant that would be used for the Union Pacific Trail Phase II. The total cost is estimated at $1,345,000 which in one way or another comes from public coffers.
Hill Crest Park is 7th on the consent calendar. There is a 113 page back-up document which includes an agreement for landscape architect services. Also in the motion is a request to transfer $60,000 from Redevelopment to Parks and Recreation. (Ed.: One concern that has been voiced by many is the poor maintenance of the parks. Whether from vandalism or neglect, the parks and playgrounds are in need of some TLC.)
8th on the list is the landscape ordinance. In the name of water conservation, let city staff decide what plants are “aesthetically appeasing and environmentally beneficial”. The cost is shown as “None”. Shouldn’t it be a cost saver for the city? Otherwise, why implement it?
Want to know who will be our next mayor? The answer is in the council’s decision on Item 9.
The January 5th meeting is to be canceled per Item 10 because there just isn’t anything for them to do. At least that’s what the staff report says.
Not on the forefront of our minds is who will serve on the Vector Control Board? Jones’ term is up. Can you imagine how he has been representing Fullerton at Board meetings? I would imagine he rambles on about…who knows what.
City staff has recommended several changes related to restrictive parking on public streets. Read Item 12 for details.
Lastly, look out for the December 15th meeting. There are a lot of topics which will likely bring a large turn out. Tentatively they are:
Annual Financial Report (A – City/RDA) & B – Airport Update
October Financials
Contract Renewals for Group Insurance Programs
Public Hearing – 5 Year Implementation Plan
Adopt Landscape Ordinance
Update Deferred Compensation Plan
Sewer Reconstruction Project 09/10 Carol/Magnolia Area
Public Hearing – Appeal – Encroachment Permit Denial
Presentation – Certificate of Appreciation – Dick Waltz
Art Pedroza over at the Orange Juice blog speculates about it, here.
Well, we have been waiting for some sort of decision by Daly for months as he weighed a tough political battle versus a fairly easy walkover in a re-election as County clerk – a job that pays well, requires little, and is unencumbered by term limits.
We don’t know how reliable Art’s sources are, but if they are, an announcement could be coming soon. If Daly does pull out it will be a bad blow to John Lewis who had been counting on getting Daly on to the BoS where he could be energetically lobbied like a rutting mink.
But if the story turns out to be true, it will be a glad day for Matthew J. Cunningham and his Red County blog who will no longer have to do pirouettes around the embarrassing fact of his uber-mentor supporting a (pause for gasp) Democrat!
For dyed-in-the-wool government apologists like Dick Jones, Jan Flory, Dick Ackerman, Sharon Kennedy, Don Bankhead, et al., Redevelopment blunders are conveniently overlooked, when possible; when not possible, some lame defense is mounted, such as: mistakes were made (passive voice obligatory) but we learned and moved on; hindsight is 20/20 (Molly McClanahan’s motto vivendi); the problem was not too much Redevelopment, but too little!
But when any reasonable person contemplates the collection of Redevelopment disasters along Harbor Blvd. between Valencia Drive and the old Union Pacific overpass, the only conclusion he or she could draw is that the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency should have been shuttered years ago, and the perpetrators of the manifest failures crowded onto a small raft and set adrift with the Japanese Current.
We have already described in nauseating detail the “Paseo Park” debacle; and the Allen Hotel fiasco; we haven’t yet had time to talk about the “El Sombrero” pocket park give away (we will).
But instead of wasting too many perfectly good words, we will share with you Friends a Redevelopment pictorial essay with just a little piquant commentary.
First there’s the strip center known as Gregg’s Plaza. Brick veneer, of course. Even the veneer is so disgusted it’s trying to jump off the building.
The standards of the RDRC were established early.Pop goes the brick veneer...
Across the street is the Allen Furniture Store. When they got their rehab loan somebody forgot to tell them that a storefront is a storefront – not a jailhouse. So why are there bars on the dinky little windows? And pink stucco?
Stone walls do not a prison make; nor iron bars a cage...
Jumping back across the street we re-introduce ourselves to the egregious Allen Hotel, perhaps the biggest Redevelopment boondoggle of all, a mess that we have already admirably documented, here. As we noted then, the add-on was unspeakably awful (and expensive). The front is, well, pretty awful, too.
The once and present tenement...
It could have been worse. Well, no, it couldn't...
What was sold, in part, as an “historic preservation” project ended up violating just about every standard in the book. The original windows were ripped out and replaced with vinyl sashes; the transoms were destroyed and replaced with sheets of plastic and surface applied strips supposed to simulate leaded glass.
Just say something. They'll believe anything...
Across Harbor we discover the “El Sombrero Plaza,” another sock in the face to any Fullerton windshield tourist. Forget the stupidity of the sideways orientation and the Mission Revival On Acid stylings (which attain a kind of crazy Mariachi deliciousness); this development included the give away of part the adjacent public green space so they have parking for a restaurant. The owner never did develop a restaurant, of course (more on that story later).
Ay, caramba! The extra parking that was supposed to be for a restaurant is now used for a storage container!
And finally we come to exhausted collapse at another one of the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency’s low points. And by low point we mean the complete, unmitigated disaster of the Union Pacific Park, ably chronicled here; and in a whole series here, here, and here.
Maybe the less said, the better...
The poisoned park: dead as a doornail. An aesthetic, pratical, and policy disaster. And no one has ever stood up to take responsibility for the total waste of millions of dollars.
Embarrassing from the beginning. How many $100,000 pensioners had their fingers in this pie?
Well, there you have it, Friends. Redevelopment in action; Redevelopment creating blight, not eradicating it. No accountability. None. Zero. Zilch. And some people wonder why FFFF has sued to keep Redevelopment from expanding.
Update: here’s a post we did last July that was just so darn comical we decided to run it again. This falls under the heading of weird self-delusion; or, just say anything – maybe somebody will believe it!
Here’s a fun clip:
“being fiscally conservative as the five of us are”
Say What? She’s gotta be kidding. Does she really believe this nonsense? Can she possibly believe anybody else does? She supported last year’s pension proposal plus the plan to hush it up. She was defending the multi-million dollar McDonald’s move mess right up to the point she realized the jig was up. We could go on and on.
The fact is that only Shawn Nelson can lay any claim to the title of fiscal conservative at all. Quirk can’t, and neither can the two RINOs on the council. Keller is a proud liberal Democrat, seemingly. We read her gushing report from the local Obama rally, a few months back, and we have got to conclude that she goes for all that stuff Obama likes. Now, this is all well and good. Lots of our Friends are libs; Hell, some are even Green! But why for God’s sake pretend to be something you are not? Pam, be proud of your political philosophy. Embrace it. Shout it out loud – you’re a fiscal liberal, and you’re proud! Don’t run from it; it got you elected.
Pam, dear, you may be many things to many people, but a fiscal conservative you ain’t.
Here is Fullerton’s own congressman, Ed Royce, taking a rather, er, informal pose with a tall willowy blond woman at a recent White House function. Why this woman’s hand is on his chest is anybody’s guess, but judging by the happy look on Ed’s face he has granted his willing assent for this familiarity by a new friend.
Come back to my place and I'll show you my stamp collection...
Oh, and by the way, this is the female half of the uninvited couple who crashed the White House party, setting off a bit of a storm, security-wise. Since Ed is a super-duper foreign affairs expert, let’s hope she didn’t pump him for any high-level information.
